THE STATE OF THE EUROPEAN UNION Towards a new legislative term

THE STATE OF THE EUROPEAN UNION 72 mission, which insists on the need to revise the Treaties and convene the Convention and it even explains which articles should be amended. Specifically, it suggests 267 amendments to the Maastricht Treaty and the TFEU. This document clearly lays out the request from the EP Committee on Constitutional Affairs to the European Council for it to convene the European Convention and start the revision of the Treaties. It also highlights that this is more necessary than ever because various Eu- ropean States are in the process of joining the Union and consequently, this must be addressed before the enlargement process begins. It comprises two main parts. Firstly, regarding the revision of the Treaties, the topics that it addresses aim to give more powers to the EP and regulate its right as a legislative initiative, among other improvements in the decision-making process. On the other hand, it es- tablishes the enlargement of the EU’s exclusive compe- tences in many fields, and they develop the way of mak- ing decisions by moving beyond unanimity in fields such as Foreign Policy and Defence, single market, budget, education, migration and many others. The document specifies all this in an appendix, where it presents more details including the 267 amendments to the Maastricht Treaty and the TFEU. Conclusion: Confederal progress compatible with federal deepening projects Throughout this article, I have wished to highlight how there has been clear confederal progress during 2022 and 2023, particularly through the mechanism of the Summits where the Heads of European governments were able to meet face to face to address their daily challenges and the short-term outlook. At the same time, we have given many examples on this such as the EPC and others such as the Reykjavik meeting of the Council of Europe. At the same time, we wished to highlight how, on the one hand, a certain de facto federalisation is happening in the European project, in some cases communitisation such as in the CFSP and, particularly, proposals from the EP Committee on Constitutional Affairs regarding the revision of the Treaties that are very ambitious and clearly fall within the rationale of federal deepening. In other words, confederal progress is compatible with fed- eral deepening and even, I might dare to add, for these proposals to get a result, it is necessary for federalisa- tion to move forwards in not only de facto but also de jure federation, meaning that the treaty revision must be addressed as soon as possible. The CFEME recently published the minutes from the Hague Congress in 1948 as part of its 75th anniver- sary celebrations. Careful reading of the Hague debates shows us that there was a clear clash between federal- ists and confederalists or unionists, but they eventually found ways, particularly federal and confederal ways, to lay the foundations for the European project that was in its very early days at the time. In other words, our experience this year shows we have returned to the confederal question without, of course, abandoning federal deepening in the long term. In previous years, there has clearly been a two-sided de- bate but experience from 2022 and 2023 demonstrates the compatibility of both questions and not only that, but the need to address it at the same time, although while the confederal part has moved forward, the fed- eral progress is either de facto or merely proposals. The challenge for 2024 and the years to come is to be in- cluded in the pending reform of the Treaties. As mentioned previously, de facto federalisation has increased considerably due to the new political cycle. Now, during 2024 and as a consequence of the Con- vention, there should be a political agreement to revise the Treaties where the treaty progress is not merely de facto but also de jure and this Treaty revision should be developed federally, following proposals mentioned by the Constitutional Committee on 22nd August that will become an agreement in the coming plenary, possibly in November, as it is backed by the 5 major pro-European political parties.